Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 2020
In this commentary, based on a close reading of media reports and our everyday experiences as ove... more In this commentary, based on a close reading of media reports and our everyday experiences as overseas Chinese researchers, we examine the production of ignorance surrounding the COVID-19. Specifically, we focus on ignorance caused by selective inattention and power plays. We challenge the dominant dualistic frame of authoritarianism versus democracy and the role it plays in overly simplifying and even distorting the responses of Chinese authorities in handling this public health emergency. We maintain that this binary thinking is reflective of the conflation of orientalism, sinophobia and statephobia in the West, which also intersects with sexism and racism within and outside academic sites of knowledge production. The consequence is that knowledge accumulated by experts from China as well as other Asian countries about the virus and mitigation strategies are marginalised, discredited, distrusted, if not dismissed altogether.
This research investigates high-cultural consumption in urban China during the last decade, looki... more This research investigates high-cultural consumption in urban China during the last decade, looking in particular at attendance of Western classical music concerts. By studying the audiences, I intend to explore the reasons behind the popularity of this cultural consuming practice in a market economy with Chinese characteristics. Situated in Shanghai, a 'global city' in making, I also view this phenomenon from a post-colonial perspective-given the city's semi-colonial history in the early 20 th century. In this paper, I try to bridge Foucaultian governmentality in the sense of self-cultivation and governmental intervention in the cultural market, with Bourdieu's capital conversions by illustrating how urbanites in Shanghai appropriate high-cultural consumption in the process of their identity (re)production. I argue that Shanghairen's attendance at, and interest in, Western classical music concerts is an epitome of the local's response or coping mechanism when encountering the 'modern' global in its historical and contemporary forms. This cultural consumption practice promoted by the municipal government-based on its manipulation of Shanghairen's aspiration towards the modern West-in reality contributes to the formation of both the local residents' identities, and the urban culture. Furthermore, the appreciation of Western classical music concerts closes up the perceived distance between Shanghai and the advanced West, meanwhile, enlarges the 'quality' (suzhi) gap between Shanghairen and people from the rest of China. My wholehearted gratitude is given to my mother, Wei Long, for her continuous support for my lone journey from Shanghai to Vancouver, and throughout my Master's study. I thank her for the tremendous amount of emotional support for me continuing this academic pursuit after my divorce decision, and also for her insights on the Western classical music listeners and concert-goers in Shanghai. I also want to take this opportunity to thank my stepfather , R Austin McEntyre for his encouragement and support. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Amy Hanser for her support in encouraging me to carry out this project, guiding me through the sociology literature, and inspiring my thesis composition with provoking questions, enlightening conversations and valuable comments and suggestions. I thank Dr. Abidin Kusno for directing my interest into governmentality, imagined community and urban culture, and for invaluable encouragement and inspirations he has offered ever since I took his class "The City and the National Imagination".
In this commentary, based on close reading of media reports and our everyday experiences as overs... more In this commentary, based on close reading of media reports and our everyday experiences as overseas Chinese researchers, we examine the production of ignorance surrounding the Covid-19. Specifically, we focus on ignorance caused by selective inattention and power plays. We challenge the dominant dualistic frame of authoritarian versus democracy and the role it plays in overly simplifying and even distorting the responses of Chinese authorities in handling this public health emergency. We maintain that this binary thinking is reflective of the conflation of orientalism, sinophobia and statephobia in the West, which also intersects with sexism and racism within and outside academic site of knowledge production. The consequence is that knowledge accumulated by experts from China as well as other Asian countries about the virus and mitigation strategies are marginalised, discredited, distrusted, if not dismissed altogether.
Many studies have been done on the urban redevelopment and state-sponsored gentrification in Shan... more Many studies have been done on the urban redevelopment and state-sponsored gentrification in Shanghai, however, nearly thirty years into a state-led building Shanghai into a global city, how much do we know about the emotional responses of displaced Shanghainese? When previous residential neighborhoods razed and transformed into urban greenery, public transit infrastructure, or commercial zones, how can displacees reassert a place-identity associated with the previous built environment? How do they make sense of the new global Shanghai when old municipal districts have been renamed or merged, and the boundaries of urban Shanghai have expanded into previously rural counties? In this context, what does “right to the city” mean for Shanghainese? Based on qualitative research on life-long Shanghainese, my work reveals that native Shanghainese develop strategies to reconstruct their urban place-identity, claim their right to the ‘city’ through redefining an urban space against the government’s rhetoric and vision, and challenge the top-down global city building policy through their opinions on urban spectacles and their housing location choices. In the process, they articulate a historically meaningful urban Shanghai, drawing both from imagination and lived experiences, and reconstruct a Shanghainese community based on symbolic capital embedded in the urban built environment.
This teaching column focuses on a midterm assignment for an upper division undergraduate interdis... more This teaching column focuses on a midterm assignment for an upper division undergraduate interdisciplinary course at the University of California, Berkeley on consumer society and culture. It is a hands-on learning experience for students with little empirical social research training to observe consumer behaviors in real life settings. The theoretical concepts explained in the week prior to the assignment provide analytical tools for students to make sense of their observations, and I pair abstract theory with examples drawn from my own research on shopping at open-air holiday markets in New York City. Through this assignment, students learn to look at everyday retail settings in a completely dierent way, to critique conventional thinking with evidence-based argument, and become more aware of the diverse customer base of national chain stores versus small local businesses, and of the social dynamics played out in the public space of consumption.
Based on qualitative research in Shanghai in summer 2009, this work focuses on governmentality us... more Based on qualitative research in Shanghai in summer 2009, this work focuses on governmentality used to produce a new and distinct identity in urban China after three decades of reform towards a socialist market economy. In a society that is no-longer egalitarian, as was seen in the Maoist era, the municipal government of Shanghai strives to find new identities for both the city and its dwellers, and to distinguish the city and its residents from the rest of the country on both a national and a global scale. One effective method that urban governance uses to both cultivate its population's 'cultural identity' and enhance their 'cultural quality' is by mobilizing the consumption of specific elements of Western high-culture:classical music, ballet, and opera through policy initiatives,funding,and official attendance. In response, highly educated and better off Shanghainese actively participate in the accumulation of the Bourdieusian cultural capital in constructing their so-believed East-meets-West unique Shanghainese identity.
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Papers by Fang Xu
state-led building Shanghai into a global city, how much do we know
about the emotional responses of displaced Shanghainese? When
previous residential neighborhoods razed and transformed into urban
greenery, public transit infrastructure, or commercial zones, how can
displacees reassert a place-identity associated with the previous built
environment? How do they make sense of the new global Shanghai when old municipal districts have been renamed or merged, and the
boundaries of urban Shanghai have expanded into previously rural
counties? In this context, what does “right to the city” mean for
Shanghainese? Based on qualitative research on life-long Shanghainese,
my work reveals that native Shanghainese develop strategies to
reconstruct their urban place-identity, claim their right to the ‘city’
through redefining an urban space against the government’s rhetoric and
vision, and challenge the top-down global city building policy through
their opinions on urban spectacles and their housing location choices. In
the process, they articulate a historically meaningful urban Shanghai,
drawing both from imagination and lived experiences, and reconstruct a
Shanghainese community based on symbolic capital embedded in the
urban built environment.
Book Reviews by Fang Xu